Organized by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Fifteen Percent
Introduction
Every year on 3 December, the international community comes together to raise awareness on the rights of persons with disabilities. This year, OHCHR in partnership with artist photographer, Christian Tasso, will hold an exhibition entitled “FifteenPercent” to be opened on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The exhibition will serve as a platform to bring together civil society organizations, missions and the UN family to celebrate diversity and promote the human rights-based approach to disability on 3 December, #ADay4All.
Background
The United Nations has a long history in addressing the rights of persons with disabilities. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 70 years ago, addresses the right to social security for persons with disabilities. Over the years, the approach of the UN has evolved from viewing disability as a condition, to recognizing the need to remove social, environmental, attitudinal and cultural barriers to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy and exercise their human rights on an equal basis with others. The culmination of this was the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006, which was drafted with the unprecedented participation of civil society, namely persons with disabilities and their representative organisations, and which now counts 177 parties. In 2018, the CRPD celebrates 10 years of its entry into force.
The FifteenPercent project commenced in 2015 and aims at portraying the multiple nature and identities of humanity as a celebration of difference and diversity. Every frame of the project is centered on the individual story of the and in which disability is one element among their intersecting identities. FifteenPercent seeks to raise awareness and understanding that our communities are ever enriched by the diversity of its members, be they persons with disabilities, women, youth, older persons, and all other groups, and that our communities can only be strengthened by ensuring the inclusion of each of its members. Each image embodies and expresses the vision of inclusion of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.The project is thus a call to embrace diversity as part and parcel of humanity.
The photographs that compose the work derive from: Ecuador, Romania, Nepal, Germany, Italy, India, Mongolia, Albania, Kenya, Cuba and Cambodia.
Objective
The exhibition aims at deconstructing common approaches to persons with disabilities, particularly in communications, as “objects of charity” or as “superheroes”. The photos present persons with disabilities in their own communities and families, as workers, business owners, parents, sons and daughters, teachers and students, religious leaders and believers, among other roles.
The exhibition will be a call for action to change communication and the portrayal of persons with disabilities as set out in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The exhibition will also be framed within the events linked to the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration for Human Rights (10 December 2018 & OHCHR’s campaign #StandUp4HumanRights) to reflect the universal, indivisible, interrelated and interdependent nature of human rights, echoed also within the commitment of the Sustainable Development Goals to leave no one behind.
The opening will take place at 4pm on Monday 3 December and attended by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael Moller, the Director General of UNOG, mission representatives, UN agencies, civil society and others. The formal opening will be followed by a reception.
The exhibition consists of 40 large format fine art prints and a video installation. A key feature of the exhibition is to ensure accessibility for visitors of the in terms of information and communications, as well as physical and environmental accessibility
Should you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact Facundo Chavez Penillas (fchavezpenillas@ohchr.org) or Victoria Lee (vlee@ohchr.org) from OHCHR, who are supporting the preparation of this event.
For further information on the artist, please see his portfolio at: http://www.christiantasso.com/fifteenpercentpublications
